Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: A cohort of adrenal incidentalomas which had radiological or histological characteristics in keeping with an adrenal adenoma was analysed in terms of the radiological and functional characteristics.Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis of a cohort of adrenal adenomas was carried out. Lesions were followed up for a median of 8.2months (IQR 1.4–34.6). In the majority of patients (69.95%), the diagnosis of a benign adrenal adenoma was...

Aim: There are few reports discussing incidence and characteristics of the whole group of Cushing’s syndrome patients in the literature. The aim was to establish the incidence of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome with in-depth analysis of their various subtypes in a well-defined population.Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional analysis of Cushing’s syndrome patients diagnosed between 2008 and 2017. A thorough search for patients was carrie...

Alterations in the thyroid axis have been reported following GH therapy both in adults and children with GH deficiency (GHD), even if the clinical significance of these changes, in small and short-term studies, remains uncertain. To evaluate the impact of GH replacement on thyroid status in a large selected cohort of prepubertal children with idiopathic GHD during a 3-years follow-up. Study outcome considered FT3, FT4 and TSH modifications (delta) during therapy and their corr...

Background: The Visceral Adiposity Index (VAI) has been suggested as a new gender-specific marker of visceral adipose dysfunction, strongly associated with insulin sensitivity in patients with cardio-metabolic risk.Aim: To test VAI in active acromegaly for the assessment of disease-associated metabolic risk evaluating its association with hormonal data, adipocytokine levels, insulin sensitivity and secretion parameters in a cohort of 27 subjects (15 M, 1...

Turner’s syndrome (TS) is one of the more common genetic disorder, occurring in about 50 per 100.000 live-born girls. TS is caused by complete or partial X chromosome monosomy in a phenotypic female, and it is associated with increased morbidity and mortality for cardiovascular diseases, impaired glucose tolerance and dyslipidemia. In order to examine the metabolic and cardiovascular profile, in 30 adult TS patients under hormonal replacement therapy (HRT), 17β-estra...

Aim: Glucocorticoids play a significant role in inflammation and immune system disruption. Our study aimed to analyse different biochemical and blood count indices and serum inflammation-based scores in patients with all different causes of endogenous Cushing’s Syndrome (CS) in a well-defined population.Methods: Clinical records of 35 patients diagnosed with CS between 2008 and 2020 at the only central national health service hospital in Malta, were...

Introduction: Adrenal incidentalomas are masses discovered incidentally on imaging studies performed for possible pathologies other than suspected adrenal disease.Aim: To characterise a cohort of adrenal incidentalomas found on CT.Methods: This was a retrospective analysis, taking into account all the adrenal incidentalomas discovered on CT between July and December 2014 at the main hospital in Malta. The adrenal lesions were then ...

Background: Post-thyroidectomy hypocalcaemia is a common complication with significant short and long term complications. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and predictors of post-thyroidectomy hypocalcaemia (corrected calcium <2.1mmol/l).Method: A total of 183patients who underwent total thyroidectomybetween 2012 and 2015 in a national general hospital were included in this retrospective study. Clinical and biochemical data were ob...

Background: Adrenocortical carcinomas (ACC) are rare malignant tumours, with a quoted incidence of 0.7–2.0 cases/million habitants/year, with ectopic ACC being exceptionally rate. Diagnosis is based on clinical and biological assessment supplemented by imaging. Patients commonly present with features secondary to steroid excess, but around 15% of patients are diagnosed incidentally.Case report: A 54-year old lady, presented to clinic for assessment...

Glucocorticoids (GC) act at different target tissues by binding two different intracellular receptors, the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and the mineralcorticoid receptor (MR), but the their effects vary considerably between subjects, due to a different sensitivity, which is at least partially, genetically determined. GCs are so named based on their actions on carbohydrate metabolism, namely on insulin-dependent processes. In particular, the effect of GC includes increased hepa...